


I'll Protect You

by bluemadridista



Category: K-pop, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Angst, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, M/M, Namjin - Mentioned - Freeform, Yoonmin - Mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-17
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2019-04-24 02:18:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14345880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluemadridista/pseuds/bluemadridista
Summary: Jungkook finds some hurtful comments online and Taehyung comforts him.





	I'll Protect You

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to write this fic because I've grown tired of the hurtful comments that so-called fans of BTS and antis alike post all over various SNS. The last straw was the tweet that said Jonghyun died to make room for BTS. That is disgusting and shameful. That tweet and others (comments directed at Jungkook after Burn the Stage) are referenced in this fic vaguely. This was basically just written for catharsis. I don't know Jungkook or any of the others, so I don't know what they see or how they feel. Please don't come at me about this being inaccurate. It very well may be. It's a work of fiction, after all. I'm just trying to deal with my feelings. That said, I hope you'll enjoy it.

Taehyung nuzzled his face against Jungkook’s hair, breathing in the scent of his vanilla bean shampoo. Taehyung could write an entire novel of all the things he loved about Jungkook, but the fact that he always smelled like a manly sugar cookie would be close to the top of the list.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, kissing his head gently.

Taehyung was seated behind Jungkook in his gaming chair while the younger boy played Overwatch.

Jungkook stared straight ahead, fingers moving rapidly to control his character on the screen.

“I know you can hear me, Kook, and I know there’s something wrong.” Taehyung nuzzled forcefully against the back of his head.

“Tae, I can’t focus,” Jungkook grumbled.

Taehyung leaned back, pouting. Jungkook had been _off_ for the last week. Every time he tried to bring it up, Jungkook dodged the subject.

After a few moments of watching him play, Taehyung climbed out of the chair and stalked off to the kitchen to find one of the hyungs for advice.

Thankfully, Jin stood at the counter when he walked into the kitchen. “Hyung, can I talk to you?”

“If you come help me wash these vegetables for dinner.”

Taehyung sighed, but shuffled to the sink to help Jin. “What are you making for dinner?”

“Soup. I found a recipe online. Here…” He handed Taehyung a vegetable brush. “Wash those potatoes.”

Taehyung started to scrub at the potatoes that Jin had soaking in a bowl of water.

“What did you need to talk about?”

“Oh, right. I almost forgot that I’d come here for something other than helping with dinner. Um… I think there’s something wrong with Jungkookie.”

“I know.”

“What do you mean you know?”

“You think I don’t see every move you all make around here? I have eyes in the back of my head. You missed a spot. Potatoes grow in dirt, Taehyung. Scrub.”

Taehyung glanced down at the potato in his hands and scrubbed at it with Jin’s small pink brush. “So, you know there’s something wrong with him but you’re not doing anything about it.”

“What would you like me to do?”

“Something. You’re the mat hyung.”

“That’s true, but that doesn’t mean I can force him to open up and talk about it.”

“It does to! You force everyone to talk about their problems!”

He laughed. “Yes, well, Namjoon told me that might not be the best approach, so I’m laying off.”

“Well, hyung was wrong! It’s the best approach. Can you tell him that he has to talk to me? He keeps avoiding the subject any time I bring it up. All he ever does is work, sleep, or play Overwatch. He doesn’t do anything else and he never talks anymore.”

“I can’t tell him to talk to you, Taehyung-ah. Have you ever considered that he’ll talk to you about it when he’s ready to talk about it?”

Taehyung pouted and moved onto a second potato when he was sure that he hadn’t missed a single speck of dirt. “What do you think it is?”

“I have my suspicions, but I’d rather not speculate.”

“Do you think he doesn’t like me anymore?”

“I am 100% sure that it is not that.”

“It might be. Maybe he doesn’t want to be my boyfriend anymore.” Taehyung stuck his bottom lip out.

“That would be about as likely as Yoongi not wanting his bed anymore.”

Taehyung scoffed. “Hyung would never give up his bed.”

“That was exactly my point.”

Taehyung swapped his potato out for another and sighed heavily. “I don’t know, hyung. I’m really worried. I mean, I don’t even care if he doesn’t love me anymore. I mean, I do. I would care so much. I would be heartbroken forever, but I would rather it be that than something wrong with him, you know?”

Jin washed his hands and dried them on a tea towel before reaching out to ruffle his hair. “I know, Taehyung. I’m sure he’ll be okay. I’m sure he’ll come to you first when he’s ready to talk.”

 

Another week passed and Jungkook’s behavior grew worse. They had a fan event and he barely spoke to anyone. When they returned home, he locked himself in the bathroom and then went straight to bed. Taehyung had grown more worried with each day. Despite Jin’s prediction that Jungkook would come to him when he was ready, he worried himself sick.

He walked into Jungkook’s room late one night after they’d worked hard filming and meeting with fans. Jungkook lay curled up on his bed, the only light in the room coming from Jungkook’s tablet. Since they’d moved dorms, he and Jungkook were sharing a room while Namjoon and Jin paired up, Yoongi and Jimin, and Hoseok was given a room of his own. He usually loved sharing a room with his boyfriend, but it had been difficult the past two weeks. He could hardly stand to look at Jungkook, knowing something was wrong but not knowing what it was or how to fix it.

He climbed into the bed beside him, noting that Jungkook was watching a movie on his tablet. Taehyung recognized it as one of the younger’s favorites. Jungkook barely seemed to notice when Taehyung pressed himself to Jungkook’s back and draped his arm over his side, gently caressing Jungkook’s stomach, covering with a button-down pajama top.

He responded a little more when Taehyung nuzzled his nose against his faintly damp hair. He pushed back against Taehyung and laid his hand over the hand on his stomach. “Hey Tae Tae,” he whispered, lacing their fingers together.

“Hey baby,” he said, kissing the back of his head. “You okay?” He nudged the back of his head with his nose and kissed him again.

“Just watching a movie,” Jungkook murmured. His thumb absently stroked over Taehyung’s hand.

Taehyung trailed his lips down to Jungkook’s neck, kissing the back of it gently. Jungkook’s body seemed to sag, relaxing his tense muscles. Taehyung hadn’t noticed how tense he was, and his heart squeezed. He untangled his hand from Jungkook’s and brought it up to massage his shoulder. “You’re tense, Kook.”

“I’m okay.”

“Your muscles are so hard.”

“You usually like that, hyung.”

Taehyung felt his cheeks heat up. “Jungkookie… I mean that there are knots back here. You need to relax.” He kissed his shoulder and trailed his hand back down his side and took hold of his hand again. “I wish you’d talk to me,” he whispered, kissing his neck.

Jungkook paused the movie on his tablet and rolled over to face Taehyung. “It’s hard to talk,” he whispered after his iPad went to sleep mode, bathing them in darkness.

Taehyung sought out his lips in the darkness and kissed him softly. “You can talk to me about anything, you know that. I’m always here for you. I love you, Kook.”

“I know you do. It’s just not something that I really want to talk about. It’s not something I even want to think about. I shouldn’t have to.”

Taehyung’s heart felt like it was being squeezed when he heard Jungkook sniffle in the darkness. He had never felt so worried for Jungkook. He pulled him close and held him as his body trembled slightly with quiet sobs. “It’s okay, it’s okay,” he said softly, over and over again, as if his repetition would make it so.

After a few minutes, Jungkook pulled away, wiping his eyes and face with his sleep shirt, and sniffling loudly. Taehyung let his hand rest on his side, gently caressing it in what he hoped would be a comforting manner.

“It’s just... I’ve been spending too much time online.”

“Online? On Overwatch, you mean?”

Jungkook shook his head, realized a moment later that Taehyung probably couldn’t see him in the darkness of their room, and said, “No, not that. SNS, I mean. Twitter.”

“You made your own Twitter or you mean our Twitter?” They all took turns using the @bts_twt account to post things for their fans – silly messages or heartfelt ones, selcas, videos. He liked to share things there that the fans would love and cherish, as they did, it seems, everything he and the members did.

“Our Twitter. I was going through the messages we’d gotten or the mentions – whatever you call it.”

“Yeah… Is that what’s bothering you? All the mentions we get? I know we can’t see them all and we almost never reply, but the fans understand, Kook. We’re just busy. You don’t need to be sad about that.” He started to lean in to kiss him, but stopped when Jungkook spoke again.

“It’s not that. I’m not upset about not replying to them. I’m upset about the things they say.”

“What do you mean?”

In Taehyung’s innocent mind, he believed that there was good in everyone, especially his beloved ARMY. Even when there were hard times, even when people said things that weren’t exactly kind to him, he chose to believe that there were good people who truly loved him and the other members. It was a naïve way of thinking, he’d been told several times, but it made him feel better to think that way.

“Never mind, Tae. Just forget about it.” Jungkook knew that Taehyung had a different way of looking at the world, especially when it concerned the ARMYs and their happiness, his happiness, and that of the members. He chose to see only the good.

Jungkook tried to be that way, but he’d seen too many things that made him cry, made him angry and frustrated. He’d seen too much.

“Please tell me, Jungkook-ah.”

“I don’ think that you’ll want to know.”

“I do. I want to know what’s bothering you because it hurts me to see you this way all these days. It hurts me to know that you’re hurting. I want you to feel better, to be happy.”

Jungkook rolled over again. He unlocked his tablet and navigated to Twitter where the bts_twt account was still logged in. He accessed the mentions and handed it to Taehyung. “Here, you can read them for yourself. I don’t want to recount them.”

“These are all nice things, Taehyung. Everyone is saying how much they love us and care about us.”

Jungkook took the tablet back. They got so many mentions that it took him almost five whole minutes to find one of the ones that had made him want to throw his tablet. He took a screenshot, scrolled further to one that made him cry, and then on to another that had him locked in the bathroom so no one would hear him sob.

He pulled up the screenshots and handed the tablet back to Taehyung and rolled away from him. He didn’t want to see his face while he read the comments. He regretted even showing them to Taehyung.

When he heard a soft whimper, he knew Taehyung had read the one that had him locked in the bathroom. He rolled over quickly, took the tablet from him, and tossed it aside, pulling Taehyung into his arms. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, holding him tightly as the older boy sobbed. “I’m so sorry, hyung. I never should have shown those to you.”

Taehyung shoved his arm under Jungkook to wrap both arms tightly around him, squeezing him. “How could they say that?” he sobbed, his face smashed against Jungkook’s strong chest. He felt safest in Jungkook’s arms, always.

“I’m sorry for showing you.”

“No. You shouldn’t be sorry. They should be sorry.” He hiccupped, choking on a sob. “They… should… be…”

Tears filled Jungkook’s eyes, but he kept quiet and still, just holding Taehyung tighter and tighter the more he sobbed.

They fell asleep that way, exhausted from the day and from the sobbing.

 

When Jungkook awoke the following morning, his eyes burned and he could barely open them. He groaned. Taehyung was still wound around him, his long limbs entwined with his. He wondered what his arm must feel like, having been trapped under Jungkook the whole night. He carefully scooted away from Taehyung, landed on his tablet, groaned and attempted to sit up, still trying to blink his burning eyes open.

Taehyung stirred and then yelped.

“Hyung!” Jungkook forced his eyes open despite their harsh protests.

“My arm…” Taehyung looked at his arm splayed out on the bed. “I can’t move it.”

“It’s probably just numb and stiff from being under my body all night. I’m sorry, hyung.” Jungkook recalled when he was in grade school and sprained his ankle. It hurt to move it, so he just let it lie there and it went stiff and slightly numb. It felt like he couldn’t move it and when he did, it ached like nothing before. He was sure this was the same.

Taehyung whined and wiggled his arm. “Jungkookie!”

“I’m sorry, hyung.”

“For what?”

Jungkook stared at Taehyung’s wide, innocent eyes for a moment and then jerked his numb arm upward.

Taehyung wailed and grabbed his arm, rolling around on the bed. “That hurt!”

“I’m sorry. You have to move it or it won’t feel better. It’s just stiff.” He leaned over and kissed his forehead. “I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault.” Taehyung bent his arm and extended it a few times. He groaned and collapsed back onto the bed when it started to feel better. “My eyes hurt.”

“Mine too.” Jungkook laid down beside him, careful not to touch his arm should it still hurt. “I’m sorry about last night, hyung. Really.”

“Don’t. I told you not to be sorry.”

“Well, I am, though. I’m still sorry. I shouldn’t have showed you those things. It was bad enough that I saw them. It’s bad enough that they’re out there.”

Taehyung bit his lip. “You didn’t show anyone else? The hyungs?”

“I didn’t show anyone. I didn’t even tell anyone. I didn’t really want to tell you.”

“You shouldn’t keep things like that to yourself, Jungkook. You need to get that out.”

“I shouldn’t have to keep it anyway or let it out! It shouldn’t happen. How can people say things like that and then still claim that they’re our fans?! They can’t love us in one breath and say that kind of stuff in the next.” Jungkook hung his head. “You didn’t even see it all. There was so much more. There were so many photos of me on there. So many screenshots of me and those awful comments. I felt so…” He shuddered. “I can’t even describe how I felt. I don’t have the words to describe how I felt, how I still feel. And the other thing… The…” His words caught in his throat and he whimpered. “How could any human being say that…?” Tears streamed down his cheek when he recalled the comment that was the worst one of all. Not directed at him or about any member directly, it actually seemed like the “fan” thought they were complimenting the group with what they said. Their words were soulless. That’s the only way that Jungkook could describe it.

“Kook, listen… this is horrible. I know, but those people are not our real fans. They’re not the people that truly love us. We shouldn’t even be concerned with a single thing they say. You know that there are people out there that really love us, right? There are people that care. If they saw these things, they probably hated the comments too.”

“What if they’re all like that now? What if none of them are real anymore?”

“They are! Don’t say that, Jungkook. I know it was so bad, but…” Taehyung reached over quickly to grab Jungkook’s tablet. He unlocked it and Twitter was still up on the screen. He reported the terrible tweet, only to find that the account had already been removed by Twitter. “They removed that person’s account, Jungkook. That means our real fans told them to do that.” He showed him the screen just before he navigated back to look through the comments. “Look at all these other tweets…” He shimmied over to sit beside Jungkook and scrolled through countless supportive, beautiful comments from their true fans. Some of them even begged Jungkook and the other members to ignore the harmful tweets. “See…”

Jungkook sniffed. “I know, I know.”

“Our ARMY is real, Jungkook. Anyone who acts like that isn’t part of our ARMY. No matter what they call themselves. We don’t need to even think about them. Our ARMY is protecting us from them.” He wrapped his arms around his shoulders and pressed a kiss to the side of his head. “Our ARMY will always be there to protect us, Jungkook-ah, just like I’ll always be right here to protect you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading this, everyone. If you enjoyed it, please leave some nice comments and kudos!


End file.
